


The One Where Marcus Calls Her Out

by anextraordinarymuse (December_Daughter)



Series: Paint By Numbers: Prompts from the Inbox [12]
Category: The 100
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 07:40:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6745309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/December_Daughter/pseuds/anextraordinarymuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "What do you want me to say?" and "I tried, but I just can't stay away from you anymore."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Marcus Calls Her Out

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time I opened my inbox for prompts.
> 
> Then this happened.
> 
> Note: set sometime post-season three.

**"What do you want me to say?" and "I tried, but I just can't stay away from you anymore."**

* * *

 

Her anger was complete and directionless. There was so much of it that it went everywhere, an overflow of regret and guilt and pain that compounded on itself until it swept up everyone within reach.

Marcus knew, and understood, and was helpless in the face of Abby’s refusal to be in his presence.

The fallout had been coming on steadily from the moment they’d destroyed ALIE and regained their freedom, but it was Raven who lit the powder keg.

“She still won’t talk to you?”

Marcus didn’t need to look at the mechanic to know who she was talking about. Abby wouldn’t talk to him, but he didn’t need to hear her voice to know when she was near.

“No.”

“I get being upset,” Raven said. “We all got the shit end of the stick. But no one likes a hypocrite.”

“What?” Marcus asked, startled.

“I’m talking about Abby.”

“I know that. What I don’t know is why you’re calling her a hypocrite.”

Raven shrugged as if the answer was clear as day. “She’s mad at herself for what she did to you. For the part she played. But she’s mad at you, too, for taking the chip.”

“I took the chip to save her life.” The words were heavy, just like the memory.

“She knows that. Which is why it’s hypocritical to be angry at you, when she did the same thing.”

“What do you mean, the same thing?”

Raven looked at him. “Abby took the chip to save my life.”

The last missing piece of the puzzle fell into place. All this time Marcus had let Abby push him away because there was a part of him, a confused and maybe even cowardly part of him, that had been unable to ask the one thing he wanted to know.

Why had Abby taken the chip? What had driven the woman he gave him a kiss and called it hope to give up everything that meant something to her?

_Of course_ it had been to save the life of someone she loved.

“Excuse me,” Marcus said.

He marched straight out of the room and down the hall to Abby’s room. He was so angry - so determined - that he didn’t even knock before sweeping in through the open door.

“Abby,” he barked.

Then he ran smack into the woman in question, who had been about to exit the room.

“What the hell, Marcus?” She extracted herself from the arms that had closed around her on impact.

“We’re dealing with this. Now.”

“Get out.”

“Not until you tell me where you get off being angry at me for doing the same thing you did.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No? Let me make it clear: you took that chip to save Raven, and I took it to save you. How can you be angry at me for that?”

Abby’s jaw tensed and the muscles in her cheek jumped. “I’m not angry at you.”

Marcus’s laugh was humorless. “Don’t lie to me, Abby. We’ve come too far.”

“I …” She sighed in irritation and pushed her hair out of her face. “I don’t want to be mad at you,” she amended.

Marcus raised his hands in supplication. “What do you want me to say, Abby? That I’m sorry? Because I’m not. I’d do it again.”

“Marcus …”

“I’d do it again,” he repeated. “You can be mad at me forever if that’s what you want; you can avoid me, and glare at me, hate me even. We can go back to being the way we were on the Ark, but I’ll tell you this now: I will never apologize for saving your life.”

Abby surged across the small space that separated them, and her intent radiated off of her in waves. Then she came to a sudden, screeching halt, and the intent turned to fear.

“Marcus.”

He understood and closed the remaining distance. His hands were warm when they touched her, one going to rest on her hip and the other on her cheek. His thumb brushed over her cheekbone.

At first the kiss was slow, and deliberate. Then Abby took a small step forward, and the lines of her body softened beneath his hands, and Marcus angled his head to accommodate the change.

He was the one to pull away. “Abby …”

“I tried,” she interrupted. “I thought it would be better. I tried, but I just can’t stay away from you anymore. Now take me to bed.”

The way he looked at her was so tender and unsure that Abby pressed herself closer to him and ran her hands through the rough hairs of his beard.

“It’s okay, Marcus. We’re okay.”

Marcus bent at the knees and Abby must have known what he was going to do because she gave a little jump as he lifted. Her legs locked behind his back.

Marcus’s eyes sparkled with mirth as he carried the tiny woman in his arms to the bed.

“Does this mean you’re not mad at me anymore?” he teased.

“I guess you’ll just have to find out.”

They fell, laughing, down onto the bed.


End file.
